Vilayat Khan - Music of India - Vol. 2 - French edition of EALP 1259 (1961)

Here we offer a French edition of the very first LP by Vilayat Khan for The Gramophone Company of India, released in India in 1961. This French edition is probably from mid or end of the 1960s. The advantage of the French editions is that they don't have the surface noise which almost all Indian pressings have.

In 2011 we posted the volume 3 of this French series, also by Ustad Vilayat Khan. And also in 2011 volume 5 by the Senior Dagar Brothers.

In 2017 we posted the companion LP to this one. These two LPs each contain recordings from two different recording sessions with two different Tabla accompanists. See here for further information.

This is our 18th post by Vilayat Khan.

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Classical Music of North India - Sitar and Tabla - LP released in Japan in 1982

In 2017 we had posted an LP from the same series: Duet of Sitar and Sarod. Here another LP with Ganesh Bahadur Bhandary on Sitar on side 1 and Shambhu Prasad Misra with a long Tabla Solo on Side 2. For more infos on the musicians see the above link. The musicians are from Nepal.

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Bimal Mukherjee - The Ecstasy of Sitar - The Brilliance of Senia Baaz (Baaj) - Cassette released in India in 1984

Bimal Mukherjee (1930-1996) was a great Sitar player of the Senia Gharana. He was a student of the Beenkar (Rudra Veena player) and Dhrupad singer Ustad Abid Hussain Khan (see our post), representative of the Jaipur Senia (going back to Tansen) Gharana. He also learned from the great Agra Gharana singer Ustad Faiyaz Khan. 

Unfortunately there are only very few recordings by him. The very best is the CD released in 2001 by India Archive Music, for me one of the most outstanding and satisfying Sitar CDs ever. Here he plays shorter pieces in which he can't develop his art as fully. But it still is a wonderful cassette.

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Abdul Halim Jaffar Khan - Cassette released in India in 1988

This is the 12th release by the artist on our blog.

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Ghulam Husain Khan - Sitar Nawaz - LP released in India in 1974

Here a rare LP by a brilliant Sitar master, who was quite well known in the West through his LP released in France in 1968 which we had posted in 2013. See there for more information on the artist.

He also had one side on an Unesco LP released in 1972, recorded probably at the same time as the French LP.

This LP I also bought  two or three years ago from the same German record seller as the one in the previous post. I'm sure that he himself bought it in India. It was quite expensive though it was not in the best condition. It seems to have been used very much and has some bad bumps..

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Ahmed Hussain Khan - Sitar - LP released in India in 1980

Here a rare LP by a brilliant, but little known Sitar master. The Mian Achpal Gharana he belongs to seems to be a branch of the Qawwal Bachchon ka Gharana and the Delhi Gharana. Mian Achpal was a legendary singer in early 19th century. See: https://www.swarganga.org/artist_details.php?id=698

That he is so little known might be due to the fact that quite early in his career he settled in Madras and started a school there. So he was far away from the part of India where Hindustani music was prevalent. Later two cassettes by him were released. 

I bought this LP 2 or 3 years ago from a German record seller. I'm sure that he himself bought it in India. It was quite expensive though it was not in the best condition. It suffers from the weaknesses LPs in India generally suffer from, as mentioned in a previous post. This one has no waterstains, but it seems to have been used very much.

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Budhaditya Mukherjee - Soulful Melodies on Sitar Strings - Cassette released in India in 1989

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Budhaditya Mukherjee - Raga Ahir Bhairav & Raga Puriya - LP released in India in 1979

Here the artist's first album on The Gramophone Company of India. One can hear here the artist's proximity to Ustad Vilayat Khan. He plays in Raga Puriya the same composition as Vilayat Khan did on an LP in 1976. Budhaditya's version seems almost like a copy. But even if so this a great album.

The complete education of Budhaditya Mukherjee took place under his father Bimalendu Mukherjee, who was a reprentative of the Imdadkhani Gharana.

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Budhaditya Mukherjee - Sitar Wizard - LP released in India in 1978

Here a wonderful and quite rare LP by the brilliant Budhaditya Mukherjee. Until recently it was missing in my collection. I even didn't know of its existence till a couple of years ago. It is the second LP by the artist. I bought already his first LP when it came out and then followed his career buying all his other LPs as they came out and also a number of his CDs. This is the 5th recording by the artist on our blog. We will post two more in the next couple of days.

This LP I bought recently from India. As almost always with used LPs from India it suffers from certain shortcomings. The most visible are the waterstains on the back. I think this comes with the years from the extreme humidity of the monsoon season. I even have a number of LPs which had had in the past mold on the back. The LP itself has quite some surface noises, which might have come from being played many times with a quite used needle. LPs in India suffer often also from dust. With ClickRepair it was easy to get rid of these surface noises.

The funny thing is that this LP was sold as being in a 85 to 90% perfect condition for the LP and the cover was judged excellent. This one has probably to understand in an Indian context where old LPs are in general in much worse conditions. But anyway, I'm happy to have this LP now.

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Shujaat Khan - Sitar - The New Star on the Musical Horizon - LP released in India in 1979

This is - as far as I know - the very first release by Shujaat Khan, the very able son of Ustad Vilayat Khan. He was then just 18 or 19 years old.

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Vilayat Khan - Monumental Music of Sitar Nawaz Ustad Vilayat Khan assisted by Shujat Khan on Surbahar - Cassette released in India in 1989

Here a quite rare cassette by Ustad Vilayat Khan, together with his son Shujaat Khan on Surbahar. It was never republished on CD. 

There exists another recording of the same Raga by both artists, done in 1993 live in London. It was released by Navras in 1995 on CD and DVD.

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Vilayat Khan - Sitar Samrat - Raga Gawoti - Cassette released in India in 1986

Here another very beautiful cassette by Ustad Vilayat Khan. The second side was republished on a compilation CD: Aftaab-e-Sitar (1988). The complete recording was on CD 4 of a box of five CDs: The Best of Ustad Vilayat Khan Ever (2012).

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